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SAN DIEGO -- The Navy's top civilians are convinced $13 billion aircraft carriers are not sustainable, but what the next aircraft carrier looks like and what it will cost is not clear to senior leadership, according to the service's second most senior civilian.

SAN DIEGO -- The Navy's aircraft carriers will rely on other technologies to defend against torpedoes after determining its $700 million Surface Ship Torpedo Defense system is not worth pursuing any further, according to the Navy's acquisition executive.

The Navy has delayed its time line for finishing an operational evaluation of the America-class amphibious assault ship's capability to accommodate 20 F-35B Joint Strike Fighters from the fiscal year 2020 to FY-21.

SAN DIEGO -- The Navy is starting to see benefits from a new aviation sustainment system in the form of reducing the time it takes to conduct various maintenance activities, one of the service's top aviators said.

Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Susan Collins (R-ME), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have sent a letter to President Trump urging him to support the current funding schedule for the F-35 as opposed to investing in what they call the "outdated" F-15. "In order to meet the overmatch and lethality goals laid out in the National Security Strategy, the DOD needs to make these investments in the F-35 to affordably deliver and operate this fifth-generation fighter fleet. The F-35 is the most affordable, lethal, and survivable air dominance fighter, and now is the time to double down on the program."

SAN DIEGO -- The Navy last week announced it is establishing an office to crowdsource ideas between sailors and civilians within the service and to help industry ensure their ideas reach the appropriate commands, according to the service's acquisition executive.

SAN DIEGO -- The Navy is preparing to equip Los Angeles-class submarines with a Harpoon weapon system as a way to bridge a capability gap until the service can field its upgraded Tomahawk missile, according to a top admiral.

The Pentagon's acquisition executive agreed to allow the Missile Defense Agency and Raytheon to transition the Standard Missile-3 Block IB into production more than a year ago only after mandating continued flight tests in order to ally concerns about the reliability of the interceptor in the wake of several developmental flight-test failures.

SAN DIEGO -- One of the Pentagon's top weapons buyers said last week that he is "not terribly optimistic" the defense budget will grow in future years, but rather the country will have "enormous pressure" to spend money paying down the national debt.

A Navy and Air Force program to protect logistics helicopters from a variety of guided missiles was commended in its first report by the Pentagon's top weapons tester as being capable of defeating the threats identified in a 2015 joint urgent operational needs statement.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said last week he has talked with President Trump about nominating a new defense secretary to succeed Jim Mattis, voicing concern that acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan lacks the "humility" of his predecessor and is unable to muster the full force of his office because of his "temporary" status.

Democrats in Congress say they are eager to learn which military construction projects will go unfunded so President Trump can divert $3.6 billion to build a wall on the southwestern border following his declaration of a national emergency.

President Trump declared a national emergency late last week to use $3.6 billion in Defense Department military construction funds to build a wall on the southwestern border. Additionally, he will seek to reprogram $2.5 billion to DOD's drug interdiction account from other unidentified Pentagon sources.

U.S. Strategic Command is setting up a new organization to oversee the Defense Department's disparate nuclear command, control and communications systems, as well as lead the development of next-generation NC3 requirements.

A defense intelligence official told reporters last week that the biggest threat to U.S. space superiority is likely not a single adversary capability, but rather actions in recent years by Russia and China to better organize and integrate space capabilities within their militaries -- actions that could help the Pentagon as it makes a case to create a new Space Force.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said last week he would back the Pentagon if it submitted a budget requesting a massively inflated warfighting account intended to skirt statutory spending caps, but his Democratic counterpart Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) opposes the move on the grounds that it is a "dramatic retreat . . . from common sense and good government."